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By the end of April, an antiques store that evolved into a popular spot to buy used CDs, DVDs, books and video games will shut its doors.

The closing of the business at Second and Walnut streets will leave a void for its two owners, and a legion of customers.

"We have seen people grow up. We have seen people cry, break down when we told them we are closing," said co-owner Denise Gibson of Elmira.

"We consider a lot of our customers our friends," said Leigh Roberts, of Elmira, her sister and co-owner.

Business is busy, but poor health of family members requires them to devote their time elsewhere, they said.

They posted a notice March 29 on the store's Facebook site that they are closing. Within five days, about 260 responses were posted by customers, most calling the news sad, while others shared memories or offered thank-yous.

Elmira businessman Rich LaVere caught the irony of the 863 "Likes" the closing notice had received by Friday afternoon. "Facebook needs a dislike button," he wrote.

The sisters said the shop draws a mix of local residents and others from Owego, Binghamton and the Northern Tier. Wednesday, a handful of people waited outside for the store to open at 10 a.m., the first day of its going-out-of-business sale.

"They are the greatest people in Elmira. They have been here for 30 years, doing good and they have made a lot of people happy. I am really going to miss them," said Paul E. "Eddy" Brusso Jr., who lives down Second Street.

Brusso said he has been coming there for movies and CDs regularly for 10 years. "Now that they are closing, I am going to have to go elsewhere. That is not good for me," Brusso said.

Though half the inventory is now gone, walls and tables are fairly full of neatly organized merchandise, including used CDs and DVDs for $5 and Blu-Ray discs for $5-$10. The glass counters, and walls behind them, have a dwindling stock of used video games and accessories, and consoles that range up to $200, incense that sells 10 sticks for a dollar and assorted new gift items.

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Granny’s Attic, at Second and Walnut streets in Elmira, has been a secondhand and gift shop for 30 years and was an antique store and grocery prior to that. It is closing at the end of April.(Photo: BOB JAMIESON / STAFF PHOTO)

They said they believed the business thrived because they offered quality merchandise, priced it fairly based on Internet research and organized it well. Then there is their hallmark: a machine that cleans and repairs CDs and DVDs, leaving them shiny and clean and placed in new plastic cases.

"That machine is what separated us from everybody else," Gibson said.

The store added cassette tapes when Gibson came aboard in 1988. "They were hot at the time," she said.

She next discovered another desirable product after buying the original Nintendo game system, which debuted in 1985.

"Somebody came in with some games. They were $50 apiece. I picked out ones I wanted and I put two behind me on the wall," Gibson said. "Somebody came in and said, 'I will take that.' We realized it would sell. That is how we got into video games."

Ann Knickerbocker of Elmira is not only a longtime regular, she rented one of the two apartments on the shop's second floor and knew their father and grandmother.

"They are very nice, reasonable, will do anything for you. I'm sorry to see them go, but it is time for them to retire," Knickerbocker said.

The store, once a grocery, was transformed into Granny's in 1972 by Bill Gibson, who sought a place where he could sell the furniture, antiques and books from the attic of his mother, Dorothy, who lived next store. His two daughters credit their mother, Dian Gibson, with the idea for the shop.

In 1985, their parents went to work elsewhere, and Roberts, now in her early 50s, took over the business with 1,000 used books her father had just purchased. Gibson, her younger sister, joined her about three years later. They are the only employees.

"We used to be here six days a week. The last 10 years, we went down to five days. We just couldn't do it," said Roberts, explaining she has a bad back.

Tragedy also struck the family. Roberts' husband, Scott, 49, was in a motorcycle accident in 2011 that resulted in brain injuries, a year-and-a-half stay in an out-of-area rehabilitation facility and in a wheelchair.

"That was a very, very stressful time in our lives. I don't know how we kept the store going actually," Roberts said.

"It has taken its toll. She has to go home and take care of him after she leaves here, " Gibson said of her sister, adding she herself is now spending more time caring for their elderly mother.

"We don't want to be here all day when we need to be at home with our family that needs us right now," Roberts said.

The two sisters own the building. There are two upstairs apartments that they rent out and they plan to convert the ground-floor room that housed used books into another apartment. The idea is to rent the store to another business, perhaps even subdividing it by renting the back room that has a separate entrance on Walnut Street.

"We have lots of ideas on what to do with the building," Roberts said.

Marie Matthews of Elmira, who was in the shop Wednesday looking for video games with her son, Hunter Squires, 15, said she was shocked to hear Granny's is closing.

"I come in here all the time and buy candles and incense and movies and CDs. They have pretty much been my family," Matthews said.

Gibson said the thought of closing the doors has brought her to tears. "The regulars are what kept us here," she said.